“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” The times they are a changing in the grimdark.

We all saw the latest tease from GW for and paused for a little.

…and saw this:

Aeldari – what what?

Luckily Black Library author Robbie MacNiven is on the case over on his personal blog Harakoni Warhawks:

Some Thoughts

The name change is confirmed.

Eldar is out, Aeldari is in.

We’ve seen this before with Imperial Guard becoming Astra Militarum and just about every faction you can think of in Age of Sigmar getting strange trademark-able spellings (I’m looking at you Ogors!)

Eldar has been used previously by J.R.R. Tolkien in his writings. It is defined as follows by Tolkien Gateway: Eldar (singular Elda) was the name given to the Elves by the ValaOromë when he first found them wandering in the starlight of Cuiviénen.

Apparently the Dark Eldar are also getting a name change.

~I’ll open the floor up to you for discussion and guesses at what the Dark Eldar will be named.

Copy protection is now GW’s #1 concern, online games practically depend on using VOIP chat, and offline games don’t exist unless they’re full of DLC or pay-to-win.

Stuff, clearly, has changed around me. I don’t like it, but I can deal and find other things if that’s just how it is now.

GW held my interest for a solid ~20 years, and that’s not half bad. I’m sure the new people could care less about old games they never touched being redone.

ZeeLobby

Their obsession with copyright has gotten to be ridiculous. The saddest day of my life is when they removed all the DE special characters without official models. All that background and tabletop fun gone.

Atharius

With the increasing number of small operations producing very high quality models that are obvious and obnoxious proxies for GW armies, it’s not really all that surprising.

ZeeLobby

PLEASE enlighten me as to how this name change effects that at all?

Atharius

It gives them a mandate to actually copyright something they can claim as intellectual property, unlike Eldar. This obviously won’t stop the third-party companies doing what they do but it at least gives GW a leg to stand on with regard to making claims against other manufacturers. I’d assume this is a legal move suggested by their lawyers.

Valeli

Oh, I’m sure it is a legal move.

I’m not sure it’s an /effective/ legal move. But whatever.

All I’d note is that it’s still 100% possible to buy high quality fantasy replica miniatures at this point, regardless of whatever names are presently in use.

There are no epic law suits pending, to my knowledge.

ZeeLobby

Apparently there was no other option here and we are just in the wrong, lol. How fast GW’s iWhitey Oknightus rise.

Valeli

Yeah. I don’t know how they ever stayed in business since 1975 with those generic fantasy names. It must have been a miracle.

Good thing they caught it and can change it now before it’s too late.

Red_Five_Standing_By

The market has changed and we are still feeling the effects of the Chapterhouse lawsuit.

ZeeLobby

I mean that’s where it all came from, but where was the massive financial collapse chapterhouse caused, or where are the current issues. Sometimes it feels like they’re fighting off ghosts that simply don’t exist.

Loki Nahat

sounds like most managers to be honest

Davor Mackovic

Don’t blame Chapterhouse. All the blame belongs on GW nobody else. It’s all their boneheaded moves they have decided to do that got them to the Chapterhouse situation.

What is next? It’s not the bullies fault for taking lunch money? It’s our fault since if we didn’t go to school the bully couldn’t take our money? So we can’t blame the bully?

SIA

Chapterhouse was making money off GW’s stuff how is that right? CH was a plane theif and now GW is taking precautions so they don’t get robbed again. We shouldn’t call the victim a bully. How would you like it if someone started making money off your hard work and you didn’t see a dime?

grim_dork

Perhaps the Tolkien Estate could answer that question for you.

Andrew

And Michael Moorcock, and Robert E. Howard, and Frank Herbert, and Robert Heinlein, and 2000AD, and Ridley Scott, and H.R. Giger, and… 😀

Thomson

This! So much this. GW got big because they stole ideas from everywhere and did stuff with it.
Now they are suing other companies for stealing “their” IP…
by the way, I like their background and their stuff. But this is so ridiculous.

Andrew

Yeah, I don’t know if they’re suing anybody else, just going with their silly names now. One thing I don’t think they get is that nobody knows what an “aelf”or an ” orruk” is, but I remember being a kid and seeing the 2nd Ork codex and going “Wow, SPACE Orcs! WTF is this?!” and since I already had some cursory knowledge of fantasy races from D&D and Tolkien I was immediately interested. Besides, these third party bits makers only exist because they haven’t done a great job of offering options to their customers, and even then, its not like I’ve ever actually seen anything from Kromlech, Spellcrow, Maxmini, or Chapter House in an actual brick and mortar store stealing huge amounts of shelf space from them.

zeek203

I don’t think Chapter House stole any planes.

Deathwing

Are you serious? Chapterhouse blatantly designed and marketed their product as stuff to use for a game system they didnt create, and in many cases as alternatives to product sold by the company that created said game, all without paying royalties.
You can argue all you want that some of their models were used to represent things GW had not released or created their own model for, but that doesn’t negate the fact that they were marketed to represent a unit with backstory, and rules created by someone else without their permission.

ZeeLobby

Woooooooosh!

Plane vs plain.

scadugenga

Not this drek again.

The closest analogy is the auto manufacturer world.

Auto manufacturers make cars. 3rd party companies make kit cars based off of auto manufacturer models, and they make 3rd party alteration and replacement parts for cars. Auto manufacturers make their money, the other companies make theirs. It’s a win-win situation.

GW filed suit and lost their pants in a federal lawsuit. 251 separate claims. The court sided with Chaperhouse on nearly 2/3 of the claims. GW was awarded $25k in damages. Compared to the millions in legal fees? Plus the legal precedent?

It was a very costly, arrogant, and stupid move for GW.

Your post shows a complete ignorance of how both commerce and law work.

This is all on GW.

euansmith

Chapterhouse were rather taking the pee. Other 3rd Party companies don’t tend to use GW’s own faction names for their products.

Loki Nahat

well, thank goodness, now they can use Eldar without fear of repercussion

euansmith

B-zinga! 😀

Drpx

Finally, I can publish my book: “Eric the Eldar.”

ZeeLobby

With absolutely no effect on the production of proxies that actually impact their bottom line. It just seems silly. It might be less idiotic if the names just weren’t random letters thrown on top of the original name.

ZeeLobby is correct and you should get your facts straight. A name change can be registered as a Trademark so they can potentially go after manufacturers selling Aeldari products. However, from the view of intellectual property the design of models is a completly different story. In short, a manufacturer can produce and sell models with a high resemblance to the Aeldari as long as they are not being called this name.

Alex Temple

I’m afraid that’s not true. While product design wouldn’t be a trademark it could be actionable under the tort of ‘passing off’, or under registered or unregistered copyright which certainly arises out of model design. Or unregistered design rights which could also be actionable.

Not that I’m bothered about the name change…. just can’t resist the law talk

ZeeLobby

Just depends what he meant by high resemblance. As long as the models differ by a certain number of unique design queues (not sure of the exact number) then they can still be sold. I heard somewhere it’s 5, and on a single model thats pretty easy to do. The point was more that the name change won’t effect those people at all, while model resemblance would.

Alex Temple

Hey. Completely agree on the won’t effect people point. Just thought it’s an interesting point on the law. Hate to contradict you on that though but that’s not the case that there needs to simply be a ‘certain number’ of amendments to the design. The law of passing off, which is a tort rather than an intellectual property right, is a subjective one. Intention to pass a model off as that of another manufacturer with the effect of causing confusion in a customer is enough. All objective observation beyond that is irrelevant. Just in case you care haha.

Stephan McColl

by that if you design something that is clearly meant to exist in the universe but at no point in time do you claim that it is a GW designed thing is that ok? I am genuinely curious by all this. 🙂

Alex Temple

Haha. You may regret that :p

Intellectual property rights are a bundle of really unhelpfully worded and at times vague protections so it can be hard to say. The models are likely to be protected by different rights to the lore. So the universe is likely to be protected by an literary copywrite. If you design something clearly meant to exist in it you might be Ok as long as they don’t represent existing models or use any GW branding. The difficulty is in that copywright can’t exist in an idea alone, only in a physical thing like a book, film or game which is where it gets complex. If you made a model meant to exist in the universe based on something described in a book you might be in trouble even if the model doesn’t already exist. But I’m no expert and its hard to say haha.

But of course, you only might be in difficulty if they actually loose something by you designing something to exist in the lore. So either if what you design causes confusion therefore effecting their goodwill or costing them sales. Otherwise they haven’t actually suffered a loss and can’t take any action.

Hope that makes sense and isn’t too cripplingly dull. 🙂

Stephan McColl

Nope not to dull at all 🙂 I find it fascinating. I scratch build a lot of models and design some as well. Have thought of selling them but then get caught up more in the morality than the law. I love the Universe GW has created. I wouldn’t want to impinge upon that. 🙂

Loki Nahat

sure, now they can call them Eldar and be completely free of repercussion, win win for 3rd parties really

kevinharoun

I looked in my mug, the coffee was still coffee.

nurglitch

Cafe?

ZeeLobby

But is it Folgers or Starbucks?

Drpx

Eldar=Starbucks.

Dark Eldar=Folgers.

Drpx

Don’t you mean, “Khaeffei?”

Anggul

Please enlighten me as to how this extremely minor name change effects anything negatively at all. I don’t see anything wrong with doing it, nothing bad happens and nothing changes but a couple of letters and an ‘ee’ sound.

ZeeLobby

From a business perspective that’s pretty simple. It creates 2 names in customers minds for a single product, devaluing both the original name, and all the content already around it, and the new brand and everything built on top of it. There’s whole books written about the power of brand names and how changing them effects products.

That said, it’s more than just a name change. It’s another indicator of the changes coming to 40K, changes we’ve already seen rip the fantasy side of their customer base in half. The fact that end times are upon us was a good indicator, but now with the goofy butt names there’s really no doubt.

Anggul

We know they aren’t going to make an entirely new game like with AoS though. They did AoS because fantasy was dead, that isn’t the case for 40k. I don’t think we need to fear that. If 40k gets some of the AoS design that would be great. Since the release of General’s Handbook AoS has become quite successful, and contains a lot of things 40k would do well to adopt.

I feel that the new GW has brought back much of the positivity and optimism that died some time in 5th edition.

ZeeLobby

And I’m not hating on any of that. I’m ready for change too. Anything is better than the headache that has been 6th and 7th. I’m just explaining why people don’t like the name change because of what it represents.

While some will definitely argue that AoS is superior to fantasy, there was a large set of the community that wanted nothing to do with it. I mean it basically broke the community in half. I know plenty of people who still play old Fantasy rules or moved on to other systems. I’ve seen a couple people I don’t know who’ve picked up AoS. Financially it made sense for GW, as it increased sales of a segment that they’d pretty much ignored for years, and broke with 8th.

Pretty similar trend for 40K, minus the ignoring.

Anggul

Yeah that makes sense. I really don’t think they’re going to AoS 40k because there’s no need, but I can imagine people worrying that they might after what happened to Fantasy.

I do think AoS is great, though it’s totally different to Fantasy so I would never say it’s superior. I enjoy both, and it’s a shame we couldn’t have both. Still, 9th Age seems pretty cool so I hope that takes off well.

ZeeLobby

I mean I didn’t think they’d change Eldar in preparation for 8th, and yet here we are, haha. I mean changing things like Space Marine, etc. makes sense, but they even have the Trademark for Eldar. It makes me feel like the new races will be unrecognizable to the old ones, much like AoS vs Fantasy. While the core rules may be the same, changing the names, fluff and background of every race kind of kills it for me, as I already really enjoyed the 40K universe as is. They could definitely move that timeline forward without renaming and changing the race identity of everything…

And yeah, I like 9th age, and the idea behind it, but if it’s not officially supported, it’ll never really grow. It’ll just diminish in player base til it ceases to exist. It’s sad to say, but that’s usually what happens. And while I have nothing against the rules of AoS, the background and fluff really do little to inspire me. I think they really lost the human element that used to be everpresent in fantasy, and I feel that sliding away from 40K as well (I mean where the heck was AM really represented in the destruction of Cadia).

But we’ll see I guess.

JJ

Depends on how many time I have to hear neck-beards try to pronounce Aeldari…Then something bad happens..lol

Davor Mackovic

This I can understand. Above talking about video games and what not, I don’t understand the rage over a name change.

ZeeLobby

Eh. I think it’s more the results of what’s coming next. We’ve been hearing of the simplification of 40K to AoS levels, the grouping of factions, etc. We’ve watched them change to Latin names that were in the fluff before. Now they’re just making up new names, etc. It’s just a lot of change. Some of which just seems very unecessary.

Davor Mackovic

Thanks I see where they coming from then. Why not wait till it actually happens instead of putting in so much energy and being upset what may not happen though?

After all the way I take it, everything is in the view of the Imperium. So maybe now GW is finally trying to show a way other than the “eyes of man”

ZeeLobby

I mean that’s been happening for a while. Necrons getting feelings and brofisting Blood Angels, etc. The universe has def changed from grim dark to a rainbow of colors, haha. Guess some people just liked the old stuff.

And I do agree. It’s too early to know. But just as people flooded the comments section to lament, others have flooded it to defend GW. So it all balances out.

zeno666

So very true. Its all My Little Space Marine now.

Steven Hyche

This is such a silly complaint. It litterally looks like an excuse to once again whine about nothing. Nostalgia blues got you down?

ZeeLobby

Lol. Work for GW? Clearly as customers we’re all just a bunch of whiners anyway.

Aura1

The End Times are truly upon us. They added VOWELS. Run for the hills!!!!!!1!!!!!!

ZeeLobby

They truly are, haha.

Aura1

Abaddon loses his mind – ‘10,000 years of war and all I had to do was call myself Aebaddoni and humanity crumbles…’

Steven Hyche

Look at that commment…. it highlights how silly you are being. Posting like gw is just out to get you. You cant make everyone happy. Thats a fact. To spend any amount of time upset about two letters added to a fictional name is pretty sad.

ZeeLobby

LoL. Did you even read the article, or the post by a GW author. There’s a bit more to this article than just 2 letters (which is the laziest name change possible btw, so silly).

Steven Hyche

You may want to be more specific about your whine then. Are you whining about them advancing the story, not changing the name enough and keeping it recognizable or whining about changing the name at all.

ZeeLobby

If you read my initial statement, I’m not whining about anything. I was explaining why others might be upset. Personally I think the names just stupid. That’s not a whine, that’s just reality, haha.

Steven Hyche

Eldar was a stupid name itself. Space marines? Yeah that epitome or originality and they are the poster boys of 40k. Exactly what kind of standard are you holding this change too? When you whine about name change in a universe full of simple names it comes off whiney.

ZeeLobby

I’m holding it to don’t take the old word and add some vowels to the front and back. if Eldar is stupid then Aeldari is twice as dumb, lol.

DJ860

Well, most of what you just stated is rumour, despite how likely or unlikely it is.

ZeeLobby

True. We’ll wait and see. But I’d have a hard time believing sweeping changes aren’t coming at this point

Taken in a vacuum yes your correct, but GW is known for overreacting/obsessing about IP. Just look what they did to the old Bloodbowl community. That and the laughable “we copyrighted chevrons and other common military iconography” portion of the chapter-house lawsuit.

SupPupPup

Shut up.

Valeli

Hugs and kisses.

Davor Mackovic

All this over a name change?

ragelion

This is the warhammer fanbase davor are you surprised? I gather most don’t care actually.

matty199

Yeah but there are worse things in the world than a name change. I actually dont mind it, and like imperial guard the orignial still has relevanceas a slang term.
GW needs to focus thier efforts into writing good rule systems

ZeeLobby

I don’t see how name changing will result in any of that but hey, I’m willing to believe the dream!

matty199

Lols. But they sure aint gonna do if they are focused on legal battles

Nyyppä

Oh damn, I did not know neckbeards were the prerequisite for rational thinking.

Red_Five_Standing_By

Because changing a name ruins everything, jeez.

ZeeLobby

His comment kind of implies that it’s more thank just the name tho.

vlad78

Was thinking about it a few minutes, but I eventually think it is just as bad as aelf. I liked GW names to be linked to classic fantasy. Just adding a letter here and there feels really cheap.

ZeeLobby

And that’s my #1 issue with it. It just spanks of pure laziness to me. Just kills the weight behind the name for me. Makes it into a joke rather than something to be feared.

Hedwerx

Aelf is classic fantasy. In fact, really classic fantasy. The Saxons feared Aelfs (or Aelven), as they ruined your crops and stole your livestock when it was raining.

BBB

So we’re saying that Aelfs should be Forces of Destruction then?

euansmith

😀 😀 😀

Thomas Gardiner

“Aelf” is only a word in the Mercian dialect of Old English. Elves originally came from Old Norse, where they were called “Alfr.”

Which is all moot, of course, since we speak modern English and the word for “Elf” in modern English is “Elf.”

I mean, why not go the whole hog and write entire Codexes in Old Norse if that’s supposedly the “true” fantasy language?

Hedwerx

Old English and Anglo-Saxon are the same thing. Aelf is Northumbrian and Mercian.

GW can call their stuff what they like, getting all offended by it is just ridiculous. If the worst thing that happens to you today is GW changing the name of a faction slightly, you’ve got it pretty good.

For what it’s worth, I find Aeldari less obnoxious (slightly) than Aelf, which is clearly just adding a silent A for the sake of different spelling…. Not that I’m a fan of either, but whatever.

Haighus

Funnily enough I don’t find aelf to be obnoxious at all, but then I wonder if this is because I’m used to British english which has a lot of words with the silent a, like aetiology (etiology in the US). So to me it doesn’t look particularly unnatural.

I’d be interested to see if there is a divide along linguistic lines here.

Riot

dark elves in AoS, all are aelf but then have different subfactions names

Red_Five_Standing_By

Did GW squat the Imperial Guard line when they changed their name to Astra Militarum?

No?

Cool.

ZeeLobby

Haha. I sense the sarcasm was strong with this one.

BBB

Well, they certainly squatted the Kasrkin when they changed the name to Militarum Tempestus…

Severius_Tolluck

Kasrkin is for cadia alone. They are specific to Cadia…. Where as the normal Tempestus is the generic term. That would be like saying they squatted all storm troopers because stoirm troopers were replaced with kasrkin models. As I have ST models dating back to second ed (which resemble the tempestus now) As well as the pig iron third ed, and kasrkin.

Wasn’t zorks what shaggy shouted when he was surprised? That and Pinky.

polyquaternium7

Wasn’t it Zoinks! and NARF!

Hedwerx

Shush you.

euansmith

“Norkz”? I though Orkz lacked secondary sexual characteristics.

knightsanguis

No, because Orks are already a trademarked name thanks to the K.

zeno666

That will probably happen yes.
GW is preparing 40k fanboys for the Age of Space Marines Edition.

georgelabour

Preparing?

According to ‘internet sages’ we’ve been in age of the spesch mawreen since the latest edition droppped. -.-

So maybe we’ll get something simpler this time.

Age of the drop pods perhaps? ^_^

ZeeLobby

Lol. This is just ridiculous. Hope it’s just his pet name for the race.

DeadlyYellow

Either that or they’re planning a big reboxing and price creep.

I’d even go so far as to joke of them being the Sisters’ opponents in the 8th Ed box. Though that seems less like a true starter and more like a Stormclaw campaign box.

Alpharius

Even though I do agree Aeldari or whatever sounds kinda silly, I don’t mind it as it plays into the whole low gothic (pseudo English)/high gothic (pseudo Latin) thing that the IoM has going on. Adeptus Astartes are still Space Marines, Adept Sororitas are still Sisters of Battle and Astra Milatarum are still the Imperial Guard, regardless of their ‘official’ names. I’m not quite sure what the problem is here as the dual naming thing (in the form of IoM’s dual languages) is sort of the Imperium’s shtick. It’s like people complaining about Wh40k being grimdark or fantasy in space.

Aos naming on the other hand…

Shinnentai

This is some kind of joke article trolling us right?

I’ll hold back my righteous anger for now I think.

Red_Five_Standing_By

Dude, we are way past anger here. This has been going on for years. GW dumps a common name and switches to a name they can control. No biggie.

There are many gamers calling stuff Oruks and Ogors though. And Astra Militarum.

ZeeLobby

And then you have the older players still calling them their old names. It’s a mess.

CatachanCommissar

If I say Oruks and Ogors out loud it makes me feel like I have a mouth full of sand. Terrible names.

ZeeLobby

The thing is they already have Eldar trademarked so… Yeah…

Shawn Pero

Waah, waah waah waaah waah waaaaah waah, weh blub snif

Blooooooo

ZeeLobby

There there. It’s OK. We can say the dumb sounding goofy names together!

Frank Krifka

General dissatisfied comment about how extra vowels are very disappointing. More musings on how things were better before at an unspecified time. Further unasked for option on how I would make everything better because I know everything.

ZeeLobby

Rawr. Aren’t you fierce! I hope you put your GW sanctioned armor on to go fight all these internet battles tonight!

Frank Krifka

I are fierce! I also don’t like peoples opinions on things. I feel you and I are kindred spirits in that regard.

Valeli

lol…

ZeeLobby

I love all opinions! For example if someone said they loved the new name, I would have no qualms with that. What I will point out are those who mock or attack people for their opinions because they simply don’t align with there’s.

Frank Krifka

Well aren’t you a savior of mankind. What if my opinion is that it’s ok to mock people for making mountains out of molehills? Sometimes a storm is just a storm in a teacup.

Seriously. Tea:Storm:cup

ZeeLobby

Because this is a matter of opinion. It’s subjective. What may be a molehill to you may be a mountain to others. Unless you believe that everyone only thinks or should only think like you? In which case I can’t help you here, haha.

Frank Krifka

That’s true. But if all opinions are as subjective as you suggest then every opinion carries equal weight. Including whether or not other opinions are stupid.

I never said people weren’t entitled to hold stupid opinions, only that those opinions were stupid and petty. I could cite historical and factual reason to support my opinion, but really at the moment I am as disinclined to write then as I imagine you are disinclined to read them.

ZeeLobby

No. I’ll read it. Where are these “historical facts” that prove that people are stupid for their opinions? I’m genuinely curious to see this proof that justifies you mocking and putting them down.

lonestarr777

Opinion are like asses, and you’re a dick.

ZeeLobby

Is that gonna be one of his facts?

lonestarr777

No, just tired of watching you two go back and forth ‘softly’ insulting each other and I just don’t like you.

ZeeLobby

Lol. K. If you want you could just not read our comments. I mean I know it’s tough, but it’s always an option?

Frank Krifka

lol. Burnt.

ZeeLobby

Haha. Just seemed like a really odd injection into the conversation.

Frank Krifka

Haters gonna hate.

ZeeLobby

Eh. At least hate with some backbone. Have a stance and defend it! 😀

polyquaternium7

But asses and dick go together like Bagles and Cream Cheese

Frank Krifka

How about the fact that english spelling has only been partially standardized since the late 1800’s? and that English today isn’t even full standardized? Or how if you read books written in dialect (like trainspotting for example) standardized spelling is completely thrown out in favor of a dialectical approach? Does it bother you when reading elizabethan authors who frequently have several different spellings of their names? (like a little guy who signed his name Willm Shakp, William Shaksper, Wm Shakspe, William Shakspere, Willm Shakspere depending which day of the week it was)

Oh they’re doing to for monetary purposes? Do you also think Dickens should be thrown out since he was known to stretch out passages in his serial novels due to being paid by the word?

Changes in spelling are neither unheard of or without precedent. If high lit authors can do it today as well as canonical authors throughout history, getting bent out of shape over something that literally makes no difference in a storyline (which is maybe breaches high young adult at its best) is just silly.

I do understand criticizing some of their storyline choices, character development or plot arc, but a few extra vowels? Cmon man…..

ZeeLobby

I don’t think anyone is complaining over a single word or name. It’s the general trend and gradual slide towards the AoSification of 40K, poor plot tropes included. The fact that all factions will soon be renamed. Some with Latin versions already present in the fluff, some with their original names hidden in a bunch of jumbled letters. Even your original mocking implies that you registered that it was more than just a change in spelling, so to try to narrow it down to that right now is only partially addressing the issue.

Frank Krifka

Ah, but now we’re in the world of a marital argument; where what we are arguing about isn’t really what we’re arguing about. The issue that you’re arguing about is generally much bigger, and what I am arguing about is that they’ve changed the name to a slightly different spelling.

I don’t think that my original comment implied anything other than that. If I were to be any broader and I were feeling generous, I might concede that it applied to all the name changes throughout the Warhammer/Age of Sigmar and 40K universes. But really I was only addressing the name changes.

Some of the other issues you’re bringing up do warrant a deeper discussion, and I’m certainly not blowing off people’s fears about the AOSification of 40k. If anything I’m very content to calmly and intelligently discuss the impact of the more drastic changes to the game system without the slightly acerbic and sarcastic piss taking.

But as two people who think that this name change in itself is a big deal are being sissy baby crybaby faces.

ZeeLobby

I’m fine with that. I don’t like it. I think it’s a lazy and uncreative name change. And it’ll be a joke for years to come. Which is just kind of sad.

That said, your original comment did include references to the past and how things were. I think that no one would take that to only be in regards to naming. I’d say it’s a stretch to limit comment like that to such a small scope. Then you brought up discussing what may or may not be better for the game, which seems to be referencing a broader scope of individuals who voice how they think the game has changed, or what they could do to make it better. Which has almost never been a comment applied to name changes, lol.

Now if everything you originally wrote was solely written in the context of a single name change, or even multiple, then I agree with you. But come on, you meant it as more than that ;D.

Seriously no, I was just thinking about the name change. The only reason people don’t like the new name, is because it’s different from the old name which is only old because it’s been used in the past. I think you’re just reading too much into my comment. (Are you sure you’re not my wife?)

So just to recap. So far we managed to come to an agreement that I’m right, The changes at GW warrants a deeper discussion in regards to 40k, and that you remind me of my wife (as a byproduct of the last I’m also finding myself a little attracted to you.)

Sound about right?

ZeeLobby

K. Whatever parallels you need to make to avoid it is fine by me. And I dislike the new name for the new name itself. So I think your generalization is a little overstretching. I think some of the renames are great and fitting. Some just add some vowels to be different enough to IP protect. It’s just lazy and unimaginative.

Frank Krifka

Eh, that’s your option and you’re entitled to it. You’re free to like the new name if you like (or dislike). I have about as much riding on Eldar vs Aeldari as do of Steven vs Stephen vs Stephan. Maybe it’s ‘just enough to protect IP” but that in itself isn’t a sin. If what your upset about is something bigger and deeper than a name change, then (as I said before) that warrants a deeper discussion. But adding some vowels isn’t lazy or unimaginative, what’s lazy and unimaginative is pinning a deeper dissatisfaction with how the company run it’s business as a whole on an rather innocuous name change.

ZeeLobby

Lol. The latter sounds like a lot more effort and requires a lot more imagination then the former. But whatever. You clearly have decided that no one should have an issue with the name, even though people clearly do. Don’t really know where to go from here, so we can just leave it at that.

Frank Krifka

Maybe you misread my comment. People are allowed to hold whatever opinions they want regarding this name change. My opinion is that getting bent out of shape over it is stupid.

Red_Five_Standing_By

A name is not a mountain.

They didn’t name the Eldar “Princess Moon Elfin Cloud Dancers”, now did they?

ZeeLobby

Changing the name of every faction into difficult to pronounce names is kind of annoying. And sure, that by itself isn’t large for me, but it might be for others. Plus there seems to be more issues than just that for some people.

BBB

If only…

Abe Killian

I don’t know – I don’t mind it. Have been in the hobby for almost 30 years and it kinds of suits them. Better than the mouthful that is the Aelf in Age of $igmar – that seems to have disappeared though!
I assume the Dark Eldar will be Commorrites?? Or will they unite the factions…

Valeli

It certainly is less awful than Aelf, if they absolutely had to change it for whatever reason.

vlad78

Point is, I wonder if GW is not firmly contemplating to push licencing always further after those ridiculous name changes.

Hedwerx

Aelf is pronounced ‘Elf’ it’s a Saxon spelling. The AE is pronounced as a short A, which sounds like an E.
It’s literally the same word with an extra ligatured letter.

Not to mention that in modern British english, at the beginning of a word ae is pronounced as e, such as in aetiology (etiology in the US).

generalchaos34

Im going to be devils advocate but maybe it will be a name for all Eldar, as in craftworld, exodite, harlequins, and Dark Eldar. Because saying “eldar” dosen’t always tell us which faction you are really meaning other than one that belongs to the race. if we are lucky they will still keep the old sub names

There is already a term for all Eldar sub-factions together: Eldar.
Eldar is a term for a race, not for a faction.

frankelee

I guess if you’re into Ordo Stupidarus, or are just a member of Geedubus Aefanboiios, you’ll probably think it’s cool.

Drpx

Commissar Trollicus will be along shortly to tend to your heresy.

Oggrall

my thought on the name change is becuase as the story of 40k is progressing they are making armies mix more ( Triumvirate of the imperium is a good example of this) i just thing Aeldari is just the name for Eldar, Dark Eldar, Harlequins and possible exodite eldar finally being united and seen as a single race again

ZeeLobby

Yeah. Im sure that’s probably the case. I just liked Eldar as a name.

Red_Five_Standing_By

Eldar is so last century!

ZeeLobby

Yeah. I guess. Clearly not enough vowels :D.

Red_Five_Standing_By

Vowels are hip and happening, vowels are where it is at nowadays. You hip to my jive?

Oh, sorry, Jeihveh.

ZeeLobby

Lol +1

Severius_Tolluck

They need to go like my last name and use as little as vowels as possible! Oh how Americans miss pronounce my name is glorious.

Defenestratus

I’ve been collecting Eldar since the rogue trader days. I’ve got probably over 50,000 pts of their minis.

I don’t care if they change the name. I understand why they have to do it.

Red_Five_Standing_By

My IG are still IG, even if they have a fancy Pseudo-Latin name now. Same with Space Marines.

vlad78

I like the name astartes, but concerning all the other names at least they could put more effort into it and keep the old names here and there just for memory sake.
At least eldari is not as awful as aelf oruks and so on… but it still shows a total lack of imagination.

Davor Mackovic

Space Marines is in Latin? It sure sounds English to me.

ZeeLobby

I really don’t see why they “have” to change it, but I know why they are.

Red_Five_Standing_By

I think Eldar is less of an issue than High Elves in terms of genericness. Still, other games have things called Eldar, so it is probably not special enough.

ZeeLobby

I was speaking more to the fact that I don’t see how the names are financially effecting them. It’s not like changing a name will stop proxy companies, or stop recasters in China/Russia. So I don’t see why they “had” to do it.

vlad78

Maybe because GW is contemplating not being a miniature company only in the coming years?

ZeeLobby

They already have books and video games that have yet to be infringed on. I honestly can’t see how someone could come close to infringing like with say, a movie, without stepping on the hundreds of copyrights they already have. I doubt the name was all that was holding them back.

vlad78

They probably want to play it safe. Understandable after the pitiful chapterhouse debacle.

ZeeLobby

I just don’t even remember chapter house being all that popular before they even started that fight. I don’t seem to even remember GW taking any significant financial hit for it. It’s like they just wanted to pick a fight with someone and then realized they might be a better fighter than they thought.

vlad78

Indeed, but in the end it showed their IP protection policy was a joke. Wasn’t the person in charge of GW legal department fired after this?

ZeeLobby

Probably, and it was def a joke. I just feel like the models will be coming out with GW stamped on their foreheads if this goes any further. I’m not sure they quite understand where to draw what line still.

Red_Five_Standing_By

Chapterhouse was popular, for an after market bitz company.

Their problem was that they didn’t play by the rules that everyone else did in that they sold kits and bitz as “40k bits” rather than bitz that are “compatible with 40k models”. Doubly so when they started releasing models for which GW had only released rules (like the Doom of Malan’tai).

That lawsuit is why GW does not release rules for models before they are available (or close to it). That suit is why GW is changing the name of everything in their range from something generic to something they solely control. That suit is why generic fantasy armies like the Empire and Brettonians were culled.

That lawsuit is the root cause of a lot of decisions that GW has made since the suit ended.

Chapterhouse was not big or famous but they forced GW to change in ways that a lot of people – yourself included – do not like but the law says they have to.

ZeeLobby

Well. They really didn’t have to. They just chose to. Seemingly more out of hurt pride rather than financial shock. Like you said. There are still bits companies out there now, as there have always been.

David Leimbach

In a way, it was better for GW and us players that GW lost. It was pretty frustrating that they’d release awesome art and rules for a model and then you’d just wait and wait never knowing if a model was coming. You could convert one, but if you really were going to put any expense or effort into it, you knew they might just release something better next month.
They can’t afford to be lazy about completion of model sets anymore.

ZeeLobby

Aw. I loved the converting. I mean I get why that change was made. Would have hurt less if it didn’t kill my faction at the same time I guess 🙁

Drpx

I didn’t know who CH was until I saw the new Tyranid codex and asked, “didn’t they have drop pod thingies?”

georgelabour

I kind of like the name Aeldari myself. It sounds more..science fictioney.

Eldar always made me think of old people playing baccarat instead of space elf truckers whose military is reliant on cosplay based martial arts.

“Malekith” is also the name of the villain from the second Thor movie, and “Eldar” originally comes from Tolkien. While I doubt that Disney or the Tolkien estate is planning a lawsuit against GW any time soon, it’s better not to risk it.

That train has long passed. Disney/Marvel and the Tolkien Estate are decades overdue that lawsuit. They haven’t given a damn about it in so long, coming out with it now would be detrimental to them because according to IP laws, they’d have to protect their stuff way more aggressively, or lose a good layer of protection. Those names have been in use by GW for decades without any reaction from them, and at this point it is so late that they’d be hardpressed to take the ground back for themselves in front of court.

I’m not sure that that’s how copyright and trademark law works. And even if that *would* hold up in court, it would be after lengthy and very expensive litigation, during which they might have to stop making and selling said products.

No doubt that their legal team sat down and told them that their names were either too generic to trademark or could potentially get flagged. Better to get ahead of it and switch to something they can trademark than potentially get forced into a Shazam/Captain Marvel type deal.*

*For those not in the know, the comic book character currently known as “Shazam” was originally called Captain Marvel back in the 40’s under Fawcett Comics. DC ended up suing Fawcett, claiming that Captain Marvel was too similar to Superman. Despite arguably having the better case, Fawcett lost the suit and ended up folding. After Fawcett went out of business, DC bought the rights to the Captain Marvel character…but in the intervening years, the trademark on the name “Captain Marvel” had expired and been bought up by Marvel Comics.

So for years, DC had a character named “Captain Marvel” and, despite being the original character with that name, they were unable to legally make comics with “Captain Marvel” on the cover. He could still be called Captain Marvel in the books, but any marketing had to label him as Shazam (after the wizard who gave him his powers). Eventually, DC gave up and just renamed the character to Shazam.

I’d rather have them change it more. It’s almost like they’re trying to be cute about it. Heck give em a crazy name. Or at least one of their alternative names in the fluff. Like AM, Adeptus Astartes, etc.

SupPupPup

Its a name of some space elves. People get worked up over the silliest things.

ZeeLobby

People have invested tons of money and time into these “silly” things. I personally have always really liked the name Eldar. I’m personally disappointed to see it go.

SupPupPup

I don’t think bad investments should be rewarded.

ZeeLobby

Why’s it a bad investment? It was a great one when I first poured it in. Still good now, but it has suffered in its older age.

Just like Aelfs or Orruks, it’s just going to a bad joke for years to come. I would preferred some other more complex name that’s at least unique.

SupPupPup

Compared to Ork or Eldar? They are lord of the Rings creatures in space with silly hats, the whole thing is a joke.

This doesn’t mean its bad, but maybe people should lighten up, they could change the name to Pointy Ears, and it would be less ridiculous than taking gritty space elves who fight space hobbit snipers this seriously.

ZeeLobby

Honestly fantasy in space was pretty unique and novel when GW did it. The stuff they added later (Tau, Tyranids, etc.) Are the generic sci-fi.

And no. That’s just silly. Everyone would much rather play space elves vs Space hobbits then pick up a faction named Pointy Ears. Let’s be real here.

SupPupPup

People played squats…

ZeeLobby

Everything was goofy back then though. That was well prior to grim dark. Squats then isn’t even comparable to pointy ears now. C’mon. I know the point you’re trying to make, but it just wouldn’t stand up in the present day. No kid would be like “ooo. Adeptus Astartes sounds cool, but I really want to play Pointy Ears”.

BrotherCaptain

This is so, so silly.

Renegade Paladin

Oh, so people who don’t like the new name are “whiners,” eh? I see how it is. Way to piss on your fanbase, GW.

ZeeLobby

Well, they’re called golden showers for a reason. They’re quite valuable and GW should be praised for sharing their water with us!

Thomas Gardiner

Are you really surprised when Laurie Goulding called a chunk of the fanbase “Mewling F*cktards?”

Wow, thanks for bringing that to my attention. What a mewling f-tard… On the bright side, looks like he’s the guy who has to sift through all the fan fic, which I’m sure he hates with a passion… 🙂

Scott B. Smith

I think that’s what irritated me most about this article. How the name was changed is a creative choice. (Note this is different from the decision to change it, which is clearly corporate.) Not everyone is going to like all your creative choices. That doesn’t automatically make them bad people, idiots, or “whiners.” It just means they don’t like that creative choice. They may not even be able to state why. Why do you like one color more than another? Are you a whiner? Nope.

Of course, some people may be able to give explanations as to why they don’t like. These aren’t always good or sensible reasons, of course, but they might be. In any event, they’re probably still subjective.

Calling your audience “whiners” because they disagree with a creative choice, whether they have a “good” reason or not, smacks of immaturity as a professional creative person. It’s also wholly asinine.

Thomas Gardiner

A lot of GW’s writers seem utterly unable to handle criticism. Compare and contrast to some indie game devs I’ve seen who actively encourage people to vent negative opinions so they can take the criticism on board.

ZeeLobby

I mean if they’re willing to bring back Matt Ward then the company as a whole clearly ignores most of it.

Aura1

Black Library authors are freelance writers who don’t really get much of a heads up over Joe public. Robbie Macniven is not a game developer or lore writing creative. If he calls everyone a whiner on his personal blog that may be bad for his business of getting future BL contracts but it’s not much worse than many writers on their personal blogs.

DJ860

Better for his opinions to be in the open and discussed than for him to be pretending anything else. Fair play to him.

Scott B. Smith

I can’t comment on that, because I don’t follow any of them, but thoughtful, constructive criticism, especially the negative kind, should always be encouraged. An outside perspective can only help improve things.

Frank Krifka

Clearly spoken by somebody who clearly doesn’t have any experience as a professional writer or in professional art making. I paint (portraits) for a living and it’s always the people without talent or ability that are the keenest to offer “advice”.

Sometimes when people offer you “constructive criticism” to be helpful you just want to tell them to #$% off.

Scott B. Smith

Actually I’ve been a professional technical writer for nearly 15 years and have had numerous fiction pieces published in that time.

Frank Krifka

If that’s indeed true (and I’m happy to take you at your word), I’d like to read them.

Aside from that none of the artists I know openly welcome uninvited opinions on their work or artistic choices no matter the level of their success. I’ve found creatives in commercial positions (graphic designers and technical writers) a bit more willing to take on feedback, but not by much. It’s one of those things we all pay lip service to, but none of us are really as happy to listen to “helpful” feedback as we say.

I’m not saying all criticism is good of helpful, and I’ve certainly been butthurt by criticism. It’s especially dreadful when a work is newborn and glorious and precious. But when that feeling wears off, and I separate the wheat from the chaff, and I hear from peers and other people I trust, it’s a great way to improve what I’m doing. Also, it’s nice when people ask politely if it’s OK to give their opinions before doing so. 🙂

Maybe we just see the value of criticism differently and that’s fine.

Frank Krifka

Thanks for being willing to put yourself out there! I will definitely check this out.

It’s not so much that I’m against criticism myself. I do seek out criticism from time to time, especially from people who I consider to be “better than me” in my particular field. But I will say a lot of criticism on boards like these are from individuals with little training or understanding, and even less invitation. I totally understand calling such detractors “whiners” especially in a private conversation between a writer and a fan (albeit publicly held).

Scott B. Smith

The zombie and superhero story seem to be out of print, though I think the former is still available on Amazon. The first link isn’t what I’d consider my best work in the world (the space constraints were a challenge for me to work with) but I’m not ashamed of it either. 🙂

There’s more value to some criticisms than others, for sure! But even a broken clock is right twice a day. It’s worth dredging through the muck to find those diamonds sometimes. (I might think less of this idea if I had a larger fan base, but that would be a good problem to have.) 🙂

All that said, I don’t think publicly crapping on your audience (even the critics you don’t agree with), as Mr. MacNiven did in the quote above, will get you very far.

benn grimm

I’m pretty sure question 3 at interview is; are you a special sensitive type who struggles with criticism? If they say yes; big tick next to name…

I’ve said this before on here a couple of times. I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen someone call someone a whiner and thought “What a cool person, can I subscribe to your news letter!” Generally any term that belittles someone’s opinion AND functions as an ad hominem should probably be avoided in corporate (and polite) communications.

benn grimm

I’m surprised you’re surprised.

kingcobra668

“Eldar is out, Aeldari is in.”

Despite the exact opposite of that being stated by the quoted author in the quoted text.

Aura1

I’d assume it’s a collective term, as the author points out he’s using both. Perhaps it’s like the race term and the factionterm? Human (Eldar) and Imperium (Aeldari)…

Valegorn

I think I’ve finally figured out the real reason for AoS, its real purpose was to be so detrimental that when GW wants to change anything the collective group of us will sigh in relief that they didn’t change more than just the name.

rip WHFB,

GiftoftheMagi

This could be a ‘group name’, to refer to all the different Eldar factions. But either way…no. Just no. This bizarre need to fully own a IP and name has gone around the bend. It makes zero money for the company only allows the minimal of protections and actually COSTS the company money to buy and maintain the IP licenses. And in the end no one uses it. Almost NO ONE calls the Imperial Guard “Astra Militarum” save the GW guy at our store, and even he slips half the time. It’s gonna be the same for ELDAR.

And before you kids get into “oh look, another neckbeard crying”, think on this: NONE of the current names of armies in 40K are protected or original. Even Tyrannid and Necron has ties elsewhere (oddly Necron is the name of a sex comic about a robot with a skull face. Yeah.) and long before GW made them. Thus if this is the route GW wants to take, ALL of the armies will change names. No more Spaces Marines, they will be Adeptus Astaries ONLY. No more Tau as that applies to a religion, so they will be renamed. NO MORE CHAOS BECAUSE MICHAEL MOORCOCK. And get used to Space Orroks. Even Chapters will have to change thanks to common names. Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Dark Angels…all poof.

Think I am wrong? Take a hard look at how different the new factions of Age Of Sigmar are from the originals. How altered. And how quickly old models became obsolete.

Eldar isn’t a name for a faction. It’s the name for a race. So basically Eldar is already the term for all sub-factions together.

GiftoftheMagi

In the case of the Eldar, it is both. The Eldar is both a species (not a race) AND a 40K Faction, much like the Tyrannids and Genestealer Cults. Both are linked in the storyline but are organized seperately, with shared units, rules and ideas/tactics.

Aura1

But we have the Imperium of Man, and humans. So Eldar can be their race, but Aeldari the combined overarching faction made up of different Eldar.

I see where you’re coming from with this. But I think that would be even… less remakably as a name. We will see 🙂

Aura1

It is what it is. As the Black Library author mentioned, Eldar is not being retired, Aeldari is being added (though obviously being BoLS the headline has to contradict its content 🙂 I’m fine with it. A total retcon where Eldar as a term is suddenly banned would be ludicrous – but that isn’t what’s happening – despite many people seeming to be protesting that very thing.

The butt hurt is strong in this one. If a name change will cause you to whine then more likely your just a whiner. So a company wants copyrights because you know thats what companies do. Not to mention the fears of the setting moving forward a bit, I don’t see why people want it to remain stagnant. Your fears are amusing. ~Tzeentch~

A Smith

Agreed, although it is nice to see eldar fan boys getting butt hurt

Brian Griffith

Also, this isn’t even a thing that started recently. Yes, GW is doing more of it lately because third parties are eating their lunch, but GW has renamed bunches of things over the years via retcon and otherwise.

Thedinosaur

I hope dark eldar are called SPACE PIRATEZORZ

dinodoc

If WOTC can deal with Elves and Dark Elves, why’s GW so shy?

Brian Griffith

Because Wizards and/or their parent company Hasbro aren’t trying to use elves and dark elves as trademarks, and aren’t trying to market them as product lines.

Although Wizards does claim trademark on “Drow” if I recall correctly.

Crevab

Ah crap, with the Sisters’ keeping the Fleur De Lis I took it as a sign that they had finally shaken off their renaming madness.

It had gotten better.

Fewer outright swaps like Astra Militarum and more using existing in-game terms like Craftworld Eldar. I guess that wasn’t good enough though

“out” means “no longer hip. As in fashion. Blue is in this yea, yellow is out.

Steven M.

Except that’s not entirely true either as from the post the impression is given that writers will be using both. The majority of the fan-base will continue to call them Eldar out of simplicity and habit if nothing else (looking at you “Astra Militarum”) so really it changes nothing.

There is a lot of hand wringing about change. I was playing when they were using the Realms of Chaos/Slaves to Darkness books, where all marines had beaks and Tau weren’t even a sparkle in GW’s eye.

I remember when you could outfit a unit of marines on hoverboards, with webguns (incredibly effective units) and there were no air assets.

Things change, the key is look for what you like in the new. I disappeared for awhile not because I was unhappy but real life, but now that I am back I am enjoying it, even if the game is a lot different then when I was here last.

Change can be good. Just give it a chance.

Nyyppä

Change can but is not necessarily good. It’s not like the game has any bad ideas at the moment. It just does not have many good implementations of those ideas. SH/GC combination is out of balance by a huge margin. Regular monsters are super weak while walkers are comparably super strong. Fearless costs more than ATSKNF but is worse, a lot worse. Transports meant to transport assault units while not having any way to serve that purpose (like the Rhino for example).

The list goes on but I think this is enough for the point to be clear.

The second they start making sense with their rules and fix the gross power differences between roughly equivalent unit types, factions and their sub factions the game can be great again. Up to that point…nah.

Hedwerx

I can’t believe they changed the name from Legion Astartes to Adeptus Astartes. I’m going to retroactively quit 40k from 1993 till now.

Nyyppä

And I thought that I could not get any more disappointed by this company. Come on. This is just stupid. The copyright law(s) already covers the models and the fluff. The terminology, since this is a freaking game, is meaningless. Since they no longer are eldar, what do people think the 3rd parties will start to do?

I can’t help but to imagine people in fancy suits and “man bags” with huge GW logos in the back and front grabbing their family jewels in a circle while brainstorming to get ideas like this one. It’s not like any real lawyer would ever think of this sort of stuff and let it slip out of his/her mouth.

Captain Bukkake

Wow, great name change. I think games workshop should comtinue to rename everything. Necrons should be Necroniusonicus, the Emperor should be Emperacarius, Plasma Guns could be Plasmosis Blastoricuses, Meltaguns can be Meltaranarius Blastoruses. Lets get to renamimg everything for no real benefit except G-Dubs legal obsession. Little by little 40k is losing its charm as G-Dubs change everything about it till it’s no longer Warhammer 40k, hell, they should change the name of the game while they’re at it

Lion El’ Jonson

To be completely honest with you, Aeldari sounds a lot better imo. Lot more ancientish sounding.

Captain Bukkake

It doesn’t matter if it sounds better or not, that’s a matter of preference. The point is if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. They’ve been known as eldar since the inception of 40k, and changing the name is just disruptive and doesn’t bring any benefits to the game/lore at all.

Lion El’ Jonson

I get your point but I honestly don’t care. I like the new name. The people that don’t will call them Eldar, both terms are correct according to the writer.

I have not met a single player that calls IG, Astra Militarum, and I doubt everyone will start saying Aeldari, though I certainly will, cause I never liked Eldar.

It’s just for copyright purposes. Even the guys in GW called them IG in one video, for the Genestealer cults I believe.

ZeeLobby

Really? At events I’ve heard an awkward mix of AM and IG. And it’s not copyright protection, at least for this. GW has already trademarked Eldar.

Severius_Tolluck

Heck Warhammer TV keep correcting themselves any time they say a name in AoS, its quite funny.

ZeeLobby

Yeah, honestly in other industries, companies would be worried about possible brand suicide, but GW seems not to care. I would never leave the games because of some names, but I’m sure people will. Now the other changes of 8th, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Lion El’ Jonson

Well, I can only speak for myself, I’ve never heard Astra Militarum personally ever used.

Well I don’t know why they did it then, but I still don’t care that much. It’s just interchangeable names, so pick which one you prefer.

ZeeLobby

Just look at list builds on Dakka Dakka. Most say Astra Millitarum. Only one lists Imperial Guard, and one lists both.

I’m honestly shocked you haven’t run into, as it’s literally everywhere online. And I’ve heard at tourneys and stores as well.

And I’m not saying it should matter to you, but I get why it matters to others.

Lion El’ Jonson

I should have been a bit more specific. I meant in real life, in hobby shops. I’ve always heard people calling them IG, or how they’ll always be IG to them.

It’s surprising to know that the name actually has picked up a lot of traction, so yea colour me surprised.

And yes I see why it matters to people. Saying I don’t care might have come off a bit aggressive. I just think that if both names are still valid, then it doesn’t really bother me.

ZeeLobby

I got you, and I agree for the most part. I mean I think the new name is pretty silly, and it’ll be the running butt of jokes at the game store for the next 5 years (like Orrukadooks, etc.). I also don’t really see what it gains them, and it obviously irks some of their customers.

But GW isn’t always the bringer of bright things. It’s not like they’ll crash and burn because of just a name, haha.

benn grimm

Cared enough to post multiple times letting everyone know how little you cared though eh?

Lion El’ Jonson

I posted 2 times to express that I don’t care about the name change. Shoot me.

DJ860

You’re right, that would be no good reason.

But if Darth Vader’s name has been “space man” in the first film, you can be damn sure it wouldn’t have been later on. Perhaps some of this is down to poor planning and naming in the early days, but that was well before copyright was as much of an issue as it is now.

Nevertheless, I shan’t be taking naming advice from someone named “Captain Bukkake”

Hawt Dawg

Ha ha ha… made my morning.

benn grimm

Wyaerhammaer faerty thouwsaeand here we come…

Ryan

They took all that money they made and bought a vowel with it.

carlisimo

I’ve played Eldar since 2nd edition and I’m okay with it. They’re no longer just Tolkienesque Space Elves – they’ve been given their own identity and might as well have their own name. It looks more appropriate to their language, anyway.

Astra Militarum I’m NOT okay with, because it’s closer to “stars of the soldiers” than “soldiers of the stars”. I don’t care that High Gothic isn’t Latin; it clearly evokes Latin so anyone who knows a little of it is going to read it that way.

Meh, I personally couldn’t be bothered with this name change. Sure it sounds like something a drunk man would say if they were asked to pronounce “Eldar”, but then again so is Orruk or Ogors or whatever they are called. I will still call them Eldar, Imperial Guard, Space Marines and so on. I understand why GW is doing this though. There are so many leeches trying to get money out of GW fans that they need more legal protection.

Pocketfulofgeek

If you don’t like this, blame companies like Chapter House putting GW in the situation where they either double down on the copyright, or they just outright lose money.

As a business it makes sense to take as much control of your IP as possible. GW are a company that exist to make money through selling a product, if they don’t control 100% of that product, they aren’t making 100% of the money they could.

Personally I don’t mind at all. My friends and I will likely switch between calling them Eldar and Aeldari, the same as we do with Orruks/ Orcs, and Duardin/ Dwarves… Both names exist to us and we just carry on.

GW have been releasing such nice things lately I want them to continue doing so for a long time. To do that they need to make money.

Ben Martin

Doesn’t this just mean we’ve now got a High Gothic name for them? I’d imagine the craftworld Eldar still call themselves Eldar

Kasper Ø. Therkelsen

GW is doing more and more for the community now then they ever done, in other words they are doing things right! t hey are Changeing the names to keep others from coping thieir models, is that not a good thing? i think is. what i think is going on is that GW is beginning to see that they have to give a S*** about us and their company to keep them self in the market.
its going the right way!

Captain Bukkake

I don’t think they care about us as much as they care about our wallets

ZeeLobby

Again, this will have zero effect on people copying their models. Heck they already had Eldar trademarked.

knightsanguis

Big deal. It’s a name change, the way people are complaining about it you’d think it was the end of the world. I’m still going to use the term Eldar much like I still call the Astra Militarum “Imperial Guard”. Just effing relax dudes.

AHaaa

You know what the problem with this is? Annoying extra syllables. Aeldari is just annoying to say and doesn’t roll off the tongue. It’s a very unimaginative off-brand version of the original name.

Ve Ly Pè

Why?

Spacefrisian

I guess they want to make sure the Tolkien family doesnt catch on and starts demanding money (Eldar is in the lotr books and means Star Elves…or something)

ZeeLobby

Eh. Old characters were removed because other companies were creating models for them.

Inco Gnito

The tedious amount of s!@$ people can get annoyed by is so unfathomably ridiculous!
“Oh no ! They call them Aeldary now ! What am I supposed to do ? Better get annoyed about it and plaster my opinion online so everyone can see how frustrated I am !”
What do these people do when something really important changes in their lives ? Explode ? Probably not , if they would explode they couldn’t make their opinion heard on how much they hate pretty much everything GW is doing…
Seriously can we stop hating GW just for the sake of hating GW ?
Right now they are doing a good job and yeah sure there is a f-up here and there , which is the price you pay when I try and sell something creative like a movie or a book or a sculpture, but overall they are right back on track. And you people get annoyed because they use a new word for Eldar ??? Grow up, will you ?

knightsanguis

Exactly. This community is so freaking dramatic.

Thomas Gardiner

“Grow up, will you ?”

Says the guy freaking out because people are criticising a corporation.

knightsanguis

There’s criticism, then there’s the sort of comments that plague GW-related forums over something as menial as a name change. Most other communities state whether they like it or not and then just leave it at that. People in this community rant on about how betrayed they feel, about how GW are scumbags for even daring to do such a thing and they’ll never buy anything from GW ever again. There’s criticism, then there’s being over-dramatic about something as small as a name change.

Thomas Gardiner

Personally, I find the fanboys that plague GW forums to be far worse, but hey-ho.

¯_(ツ)_/¯

SupPupPup

Isn’t everyone here a fanboy of warhammer?

Thomas Gardiner

Nope. It’s a product I like, and have liked for a while. But I’m not “loyal” to it. Fanboyism is poison and leaves you open to being shafted by companies that are all too willing to exploit blind consumer loyalty. It’s inherently anti-consumer and only encourages poor practices from corporations.

I hate fanboyism in video games, and I hate it in tabletop too. Christ, I hate it in any media property (DC Comics movie fanboys are the worst).

Ed Butlar

Fan boys? Well I’m not like you and I’m not a fan boy, I just don’t want to moan about things I consider pointless and childish.

Ed Butlar

No please don’t grow up, I love laughing at the comments.

StingrayP226

Should have renamed them to Deldard due to all the D they are packing….

Mike Tooze

Druchii

The Rout

Theres a lot of hurt feelings about a name a change and i just dont get it.

I used to call them Eldarians for fun sometimes 😉
I’m ok with “Aeldari”. Sounds more eldar-like than “Eldar” if that makes sense. As if “Eldar” was the short form humans are calling them or something.

Flibble

This is fine – it’ll be a bit jarring for a bit but if it allows them to continue to release the sort of quality we saw in 2016 consistently into the future then I think we should understand.

ZeeLobby

Lol. Take it easy man. You don’t have to hate us, and even more don’t hate yourself! I often avoid the internet these days. I like the convos on BoLS because they’re diverse. Maybe I’m just a whacko though. Too many echo chambers on the internet today. Maybe if just sickens me because I reside in the US where our two political parties have just become echo chambers as well.

MKG35

“Eldar is out, Aeldari is in” nope Robbie MacNiven states that Eldar is not being removed from the canon its just that Aeldari Is being added

Anggul

Sounds cool.

No doubt people will complain but there’s no reason to. It’s a more alien name and sounds just as good.

Emdee

Dirty xenos sounds just fine to me. No need for all the fancy letters….:P

Drpx

Durtee Zeynohs.

Sentinel

I don’t see what all the fuss is about, Aeldari doesn’t sound that bad. I think we can all agree that Dark Eldar are a better faction anyway and are much more interesting. They will no doubt be reiceving an even better name.

Drpx

And then everything but Wyches, Reaverbikes and Hellions got squatted.

Patriarch

Also not original protected words: “emperor”, “chaos”, “ultramarine”, “titan”, “imperium”, “psyker” etc etc etc… so presumably all these are potentially up for change.

Earl Tower

I would like to see some major changes and advances in the story line. I was happy to see the Horus Heresy fleshed out, but I really want to see the time line march forward. With the name change I’m hoping the space elf refugees will start trying to make some changes.

BeardMonk

From the outside as a non-GW gamer, this smells like the start of AoS. While I love the 40K universe, most of the models and enjoyed watching great games of 40K I always found playing 40K to be too shallow an experience without tactical depth at the micro and macro level. However I now consider 40K to be the more advanced of the two main game systems GW sell. Changing the names of well-established armies is how the AoS silliness started. I await for the 40K end times and follow on whipping of the universe.

TenDM

Keep in mind they didn’t do that with fantasy just to pave the way for Age of Sigmar. If WHFB 9th Edition had of came out instead of AoS they still would have renamed everything. It’s about Imperial Guard or Eldar being generic terms anyone can use, while Astra Militarum and Aeldari are terms they can claim stake a legal claim on.

As for 40k vs AoS, right now Age of Sigmar has a bit of a tactical edge on 40k. It looks simpler but really it’s just more organised. It’s about as deep as 40k but it’s not as bloated as 40k so it’s more about engaging your opponent than building lists that try to steam roll everything. It’s GW so it’s not perfect, but with the addition of the General’s Handbook it now boils down to a faster to play 40k.

MechBattler

Yeah, but isn’t the pronunciation of Aeldari just Eldary? As if the they needed to get MORE Eldary.

knightsanguis

I think that’s how it’s pronounced. It wouldn’t surprise me, I mean daemons is still pronounced “demons”.

Azatoth

Not to forget Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Hero Eldar, an elven SF race that was entangled in an extermination war against humans.

Same source GW “stole” the 8 pointed star of chaos from. I wonder if they have his permission to use it. Of course I doubt that MM copyrighted it then.

Deathwing

They can always call them Druchii

Deathwing

thats a name that is only associated with GW, trademarkable, and no longer in use now that the original warhammer druchii are no longer around.

Ed Butlar

This sounds cool, looking forward to seeing what happens, really great to see the landscape changing and the story developing. I have to say I also love reading some of the comments, some of you guys really need to relax.

Talos2

Meh, it’s just another name change no one will use.

mgdavey

End Times 40k:
Calth Bye-Bye
Return of Giant Magician Magnash
Munging of separate factions into mix-and-match mega-factions.
Different-ish names for said factions.

All smells very familiar. Including the echoes of denial.

Calgar

Oh god they changed the name!!! Really is this something that anyone cares about? New name, Great, i’m still calling them the same thing I always have, Space Pansies. Call em what you want, why does it hurt if GW gets a name they can trademark. Its not the end of the world.

Troy Dean

Personally, I quite like Aeldari. It’s got a bit of a ludicrous, overwrought sci-fi taste to it that feels right when describing the Killer Coneheads. If the book politely points out ‘but humans are dumb and just call them Eldar’ then I’m not sure what the kerfuffle is about. As an Astra Miliwhatsit player, I’ve already done my time in the trenches over this debate.

Brandon Rutter

k so anyways, Dark Eldar will become Commorites, as Cawl referred to them? And Gangs is, distantly, a way to get us used to the name? or what else could they be called if NOT Dark Aeldari

benn grimm

Lol. Such a bunch of muppets…

Beyond Boredom

Will the Space Marines become Void Soldiers?

ALittleGreeky

Wasn’t Aeldari an accepted term for the whole Eldar race in 40k once upon a time? I can’t remember where I read that, but I might have to do some digging now.

Additionally, for me personally, I’ll just wait and see what happens in 8th edition. This could literally just be a name change and that’s all it ever amounts to, which makes this a non-issue. They changed the name of a thing, but the other one is still acceptable. Just like Astra Militarum and the Imperial Guard, it literally does not matter.

I like this for a couple of reasons. 1. just like the sound of it (assuming ay ell dar ry), has the right ring about it as I’d imagine the language would be actually spoken by Aeldari. 2. I love the idea that some new models will be out. I know they’re over invested in already but there are some mega old models in the range that need updating.

TenDM

Yeah. It fits so much more neatly into their lore than a pun on the word elder. In retrospect Eldar really is just a step above Space Elves. Aeldari keeps it’s roots while making it sound like something that they’d actually call themselves. Can’t wait for Dark Eldar to become the Commarites.

CatachanCommissar

Eeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Admiral Raptor

This is shaking up just like the WHFB end times. Don’t worry 40k players. Once everything blows up, we’ll end up with a much better game to play (this time with points from the start!).

AnomanderRake

(Is someone going to warn GW that we’re all just going to keep calling them “Eldar” anyway? It’s not like anyone’s tried to fit “Astra Militarum” into casual conversation when they could just keep saying “IG” or “Guard”.)

scadugenga

This…is not encouraging me to start breaking out my ELDAR again. Or any 40k army.

Hannoveraner

“Eldar is out, Aeldari is in.”
While the source states that Eldar is not “out”.

Central Intelligence Agency

Can’t wait for the new name of the Emperor: The Oogaly Boogaly of Mankind.

TenDM

Think about it though, his name isn’t ‘The Emperor’. He has a real name buried somewhere.

Dave

For what its worth Aeldari is actually a pretty decent name attempt. As a Tolkien fan I always found it a bit odd that the name was clearly ripped from it.